Le Quinze Vins was a lovely surprise. It is Sunday afternoon, and Nat and I are looking for somewhere to get a glass of wine after some Hong Kong tourism. We do a bit of searching around, and find the Central branch of Le Quinze, which is empty, but apparently open. We go inside and […]

Equipo Navazos La Bota de Florpower NV Jerez, Spain
This is an unfortified flor-aged wine from the 2012 vintage. It’s really distinctive and lovely: tangy and bright with hints of cheese and some spicy salty notes. Weighty and mineral. Complex and nutty with lovely acid. 92/100

Had this at lunch yesterday courtesy of Ashleigh Barrowman of Scotch Wine Bar. It’s a quite beautiful wine, but initially on the nose it is a little scary, with some animal pretty notes (this is a natural wine with no added sulfites and total SO2 of 7 mg/litre). But it’s not a faulty wine: once […]

It was my birthday. And I was in Lyon. And at short notice we managed to get space at the bar at Cafe Sillon, which I’d heard a lot about. It exceeded expectations: the set menu was sensitively cooked and very imaginative, with a couple of options for each course (for a small place like […]

I had this wine on Wednesday night at the fab Westerns Laundry. It’s a Gamay from the Jura, but is labelled as Vin de France. François Rousset-Martin grew up in Burgundy where his father was a medical microbiologist at the Hospices de Beaune. But the family had some vines in the Jura: 12 hectares in […]

More Jura joy. There’s so much good stuff coming from this region, and it’s usually from producers taking a more natural approach. This was drunk last night looking out over the sea at Golden Bay, at the top of South Island, New Zealand. It was mesmerising.

Had some lovely wines last night with Angela Jordaan and Thor Gudmundsson at the fabulous Ellory (thoroughly recommended: really good small plates style menu and excellent wine list). Here are my notes.

Had this at lunch today, at The Slanted Door in San Francisco’s Ferry Terminal. It’s a lovely restaurant with modern vietnamese cuisine the theme, and a stunning wine list full of interesting bottles that really do a good job in matching the menu. It’s a sparkling wine from Champ Divin in the Jura, made from […]

Had lunch at Moro today with Emily Harman and Laura Rhys. Mark Andrew was supposed to join, but he had to fill in for someone at Noble Rot, so after lunch we headed down to meet him there. Moro: the food is amazing, always, and it didn’t disappoint today. And between Moro and Noble Rot […]